Taxation & Estate Planning

Jurisdiction in Probate

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

I remember very little about my law school jurisdiction class (other than the fact that my professor, who looked like a Teutonic version of Queen lead singer Freddy Mercury, wore the world's tightest jeans).

But jurisdictional questions do arise in the probate context. Often these issues have to be resolved by the court sua sponte (on its own, without motion from either party), since a party may not even have standing to present an argument. In re. Estate of Hoch v. Hoch (a 4th district Appellate Court case, available as a PDF here) is such a case, in which an Illinois court dismissed an Illinois probate (vacating its own order admitting the decedent's Will to probate) because a probate had already been initiated in Louisiana.

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on September 10, 2008 (boomark / email).